In my little home setup I had a pair of speakers sitting on my desk that needed to be elevated by just enough to be in the sweet spot for a short bugger like me seated. This worked out to about 160 to 170mm from desk level, which is a rather awkward dimension for most stands on the market. Short of buying a speaker floor stand (no space), a dedicated workstation (no money) or an adjustable desktop stand (ditto), it was time to head down to the craft shop for inspiration.

As luck would have it, they had 8″ x 10″ MDF boards which were almost the exact footprint of my speakers. They also had 6″ x 4″ boards, which together with the thickness of 10mm would put me in the ballpark (6″ x 25.4 + 10mm = 162.4mm). Yeah I know working with imperial units is a bitch, you can blame the Americans for that.

I didn’t have the patience to photograph all the steps, so here’s the finished product. I think it’s straight-forward enough :

I guess this is the most stable arrangement, or least likely to collapse under the weight of the speaker. Since the load is mostly compression, white glue (something like Elmers) would suffice for putting it together without screws or nails. I used some wood sealer to prime the MDF surface before spray painting it, so that it won’t soak up the paint. This is not quite my forte so you’ll notice there are no close-up shots of the spots where I screwed up the spray painting.

So here is how it looks as part of my rig:

Rubber ducky, you’re the one…

Yeap, that’s a Fender Esquire on my wallpaper.

By the way, those are Prodipe Ribbon 5 monitors and I highly recommend them. You won’t find ribbon tweeters in any other monitor at this price range. If you’re in Singapore, Luthermusic carries them. Save money by DIY, spend more on good gear.